Hi, have a question for those of you who are on or were on asacol HD. I was on it for about 3 weeks when I developed terrible muscle pain and joint pain in my hips, knees, ankles and feet. I am a waitress and work very hard so this was not working for me. Sadly the med had been helping. Urgency was much less and frequency of stOols was much less, from Over 20 per day to less than 10. I currently have been diagnosed with non-specific colitis. I get an endoscopy tomorrow which will help with more information . I have already had a colonoscopy. Any suggestions for meds to try that are similar to Asacol but may not have the same side effects. The joint pain was unbearable. I would appreciate anybody's suggestions. I believe I have Crohns. My sister has had it for many years and I have a lot of the symptoms. Even the mouth sores are happening. I have follow up with my GI on the 28th and want to have an idea of what to expect. What meds to ask for and which ones to stay away from. I am currently trying Questran by suggestion of my GP but just started and she wants me to start with half a scoop 3 times a day and work up. Please help me!

Unfortunately, all of the drugs that are similar to Asacol would likely give you the same reaction, although what you describe does not sound quite like an allergic response. This is a question for your DR for sure. How much of your colon was affected as seen under the scope? If your inflammation is limited to the terminal ileum/cecum, you might find entocort (budesonide) very effective. And if you have additional inflammation at the tail end, perhaps mesalamne enemas would be effective and have few side effects.*******************49 yrs old, IBD diagnosis in spring '01. Proctitis, gastritis, ileitis.Currently taking Pentasa (3g/day)Colazal (9 pills/day), Sulfazine (1.5 g/day), Prevacid, folic acid, vit. D (2K iu), flax seed oil (2 tsp/day), mesalamine enema as needed. Gluten free as of 5/30/11.

The first medication i tried was asacol, but it didn't really do anything for me. I ended up back in the hospital and switched to pred and pentasa, but long term that didn't really help to much either sorry to say. I'm not sure what comes next as I'm waiting to get insurance again, but i waitress also and feel your pain i ts not easy feeling so bad and running around for hours. I hope you get things straightened out and feel better soon